Healer Thoughts: Now what?

Yesterday the news leaked that the story of the song “healer” from the new Hillsong, THis is our God CD, was fiction. The news rocked my reader and I posted the announcement as well. Since then the web has blown out, the post has recieved a ton of traffic and about 10 of us (cool bloggers) met on mogulus with Fred Mckinnon to discuss the situation.

Fred told us that a verse came up in prayer Philippians 1:15-18:

15 It’s true that some here preach Christ because with me out of the way, they think they’ll step right into the spotlight. But the others do it with the best heart in the world. 16 One group is motivated by pure love, knowing that I am here defending the Message, wanting to help. 17 The others, now that I’m out of the picture, are merely greedy, hoping to get something out of it for themselves. Their motives are bad. They see me as their competition, and so the worse it goes for me, the better—they think—for them. 18 So how am I to respond? I’ve decided that I really don’t care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, so I just cheer them on! And I’m going to keep that celebration going. message Bible

Wow! That verse says it all huh. I got to thinking about all that has gone on by this situation. Mike decieved a ton of people. How many? I don’t know, but with this CD hitting #4 on I tunes and my post on the controversy in a few hours getting 1300 hits I’d say this song touched a lot more people than we even know. So what were his motives? What makes a guy go through that much trouble to even decieve his wife and family? Why go to such lengths? Money…Fame…mental illness…The kingdom? I don’t know what to say about that because only God knows his heart. My heart goes out to the man and I hope we can pray for him in this time.

Also lets make sure we pray for his youth that looked up to him that they won’t be disillusioned with the church. Pray for Hillsong that this does not throw them into a situation where people think they can’t trust them. This is a huge situation, but not one that God was not aware would happen.

So what is our response. Depending on your church atmosphere you mayhave to announce this. Others like mine there probablly is no need. Will you keep singing the song? Is it now tainted? I hink God can breath life into words and His spirit is in His truth. This song is full of truth. It is of God. It just came through a broken vessel. I am still ministered to by this song as I know others are as well because these are tuths about God not fabrications of a deceptive man.

Can God work through false prophets, murderers, adulterers, IRS agents, fishermen…etc etc. Of course he can. We are His vessels no matter how broken. I think situations like this are exactly why he chose the disciples he did.

Peter was a dirtbag, thomas a doubter, judas a liar and traitor, Paul a terrorist and so on. Yet besides all those faults God worked miracles through them and around them. Some failed and God still worked others continued in the faith and God did even more through them.

Are songs powerful or just the people? I’d say that truth is powerful wherever it is found. Truth supercedes our failings.

This is a hope I hang onto in worship every week. “Lord I pray that you minister through me eventhough I am so full of garbage.

People: Man, that is a great song.
Us: The dude who wrote that is dying of some sort of blood disease.
People: Uh, I did not know that.

In other words, despite the source of the song (i.e. deception), it still reached out and spoke to numerous amounts of people (God).

I hope God keeps trying to teach us to focus on Him and not other people. I hope He keeps using stuff like this to keep our eyes on Him and desperate for Him instead of us trying to pick the next Moses.

We can talk to Him. He will speak to us. He gave us everything so we are equipped to worship and serve Him. His only Son died so that we would have this intimate, personal and romantic relationship with God. We are His people and He is our God.

Everything else, including the latest and greatest worship song, is so secondary it is unreal.

Great insight here. I think that the conversations this situation is sparking are just great. This is a high profile situation, and one that deserves time, prayer and consideration. I love the scripture reference here because it really speaks to the heart of the matter: no matter what the intent of the individual, the end result is still a song that touches on the truth of our God.

Can I be absolutely heretical here? I only listened to the song once, but I looked at the lyrics over on CCLI a couple weeks ago, to see why it was #1 on their Lead Sheet downloads.

And to tell the truth, I couldn’t figure out why. It seems to be totally “me” centered – “I believe, all ‘I’ need.” It seems to be missing the point of what we’re supposed to be proclaiming in worship – the objective greatness of God.

darren…
ha ha
I get what you are saying but I also put in the same category as say the creeds…we say “i believe”
I treat this song the same way..I do believe he is my healer and portion…and nothing is impossible for God.

I also think balance is ok. I songs are good if they are not the entire service.

Also some songs tug at people so they can give glory to God for thier own situations. THis one has.

Wow, I’m pretty torn about this. Good thoughts on whether or not a song means something if the maker of it was full of it. Having spent 5 minutes thinking about it, I’m really torn. Very interesting catching up here though on what everyone’s saying.

hey man
still learning this blog stuff…but great post
love the scripture…
interesting how this stretches the church i love that God alone knows how this plays out for His glory when it looks to us a big mess

I am fighting stage IV colon cancer (for real!!) and I really liked this song. It does speak to me and there is truth in it. I am saddened by this turn of events, but God uses all types of people for His glory.

Just getting caught up. But honestly no controversy that comes out of the Hillsongs camp surprises me. (but He wasn’t originally a Hillsongs guy, right?) In any case there are several controversies and sad stories that would “shock” us surrounding the whole Hillsongs empire that we rarely hear about because they mostly only get pub in Australia. I know they’re all mega-talented and this passage certainly helps keep my frustration towards them in check… anyway, i’m not really going anywhere with this other than “oh … well, not surprised”….

On the contrary, this song is actually all about God. You are placing the focus on him by telling Him that you believe that He is. You are placing your faith and trust in him. It’s actually showing that you have total faith in God and that without you Him you understand that you are nothing and you are voicing this. If a man always talks about his wifr and how much he loves her and thinks she is the world but never tells her she won’t feel that love that he has for her. It’s a simple communication to God…it’s good to talk about God but we need to talk to Him and that just means that you say “God, I….ect.” That doesn’t mean you are self focused…you are telling God who he is to you and what his love means and that you can trust Him…you also build your faith when you tell God “I trust in you and nothing is impossible for you.” There is power in the spoken words…..